##VIDEO ID:fpmjBm9cnSQ## hello everyone sorry we're a little late um we ran over appreciate your patience um Madame clerk would you please read the adequate notice of compliance statement adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the city clerk's office in preparation of the Council annual meeting notice dat December 18th 2023 which was properly distributed and posted per statutory requirements please be advised that the fire exits are to my right your left and at the back of the room the city has a listening system to assist the hearing impaired if anyone needs hearing assistance please obtain the system at the deis and return it thereafter thank you very much uh roll call please Mr Boyer pres M Hamlet here Mr migar here Mr palowski here Mr Smallwood here Mr bartan present president MCT turny present all right uh at this time uh we're going to do our Pledge of Allegiance I see in the crowd my daughter's state championship lacrosse coach and she did such a great job I'm going to call on coach Walsh to lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you coach walls should we give him a round of applause all right um all right uh Madam clerk at this time would you please read the notices regarding closed session and hearings and comments please a closed session meeting as authorized by state statute was announced and held prior to the start of this meeting and the known items for discussion were listed on the published close session agenda please be advised that Council meetings are broadcast live on Comcast channel 36 and Verizon channel 30 and rebroadcast on Thursdays and Saturdays on httv on Comcast 36 and Verizon 33 when invited to speak please come to the lecturn clearly state your name and address spell your last name and speak into the podium microphone so that your comments can be understood by all and properly recorded whenever an audience or council member reads from a prepared statement please give or email a copy to the city clerk's office at city clerk cityofsummit.org to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to to permit all to be heard speaker shall limit their comments to three minutes unless you are using an electronic device to follow the meeting agenda or needed for professional emergency contact purposes please turn it off thank you thank you very much um all right uh at this time uh uh do I hear a motion to approve the Clos session and regular uh meeting minutes for November 6th 2024 so moved second all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right um now we're on to our uh reports going to kick it off as usual with our esteemed Madam mayor thank you um The Summit policeman's benevolent Association number 55 and Summit firefighters Mutual Ben benevolent Association number 54 are hosting the annual United States Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots holiday toy drive now through Tuesday December 10th to participate bring new and unwrapped toys to the donation boxes throughout Summit locations include City Hall and the firehouse and others listed on the city website as I mentioned at the last meeting the fire department will host a grand opening for the new firehouse on Sunday November 24th from 12: P.M to 5: P PM members of the public are invited to attend and the event will begin with a closing ceremony at the current headquarters at 396 Broad Street followed by a parade to the new location to some for some Firehouse Opening Ceremonies and traditions and attendees will then be invited to tour the new building um also on SE on uh Sunday November 24th the other fellow first foundation's 17th annual frozen turkey Drive is happening on Union Place right outside of the Summit Diner from 1:00 p.m. to 400 p.m. bring a frozen turkey non- perishable food items or monetary donation all donations and proceeds will benefit the Community Food Bank of of New Jersey um so make it a day go to the firehouse and hang out with the turkeys um there will be two information sessions for high school and middle school students interested in learning about attending the US Naval Academy Summit High School 2022 graduate and current midshipman and also part of the coach Walsh lacrosse managerie Maggie def Fabio will be available at Summit High School for interested Summit High School students on November 26th from 9:45 to 10:45 a separate session will be for middle school students uh which is set for November 25th at 4 pm. at the community center that one is geared to seventh and eighth grade students but sixth grade students are welcome to come to along with their parents the session will emphasize what they need to be thinking about and doing now to be a comp competitive candidate they will also discuss programs that the Naval Academy offers to Rising n9th graders for which applications open in January from our department of community programs uh Miracle on Elm Street is Saturday November 30th join us for ice skating from 1: to 6 p.m. there will be hot chocolate and pictures with Santa and the annual tree lighting will take place at 5:00 p.m. and hopefully there will be weather that's commen it with that those activities by by the end of November uh Thursday November 28th is the fourth annual Thanksgiving at the community center from 12: to 2: p.m. this is a free Thanksgiving meal for anyone in our community and last DCP is currently taking applications to join our Multicultural event committees please visit the Department of Community website Department of Community programs website events page for the new guidelines on applications and applications for that are due December 1st thank you thank you very much all right I'm going to call a slight audible now and I'm going to give my report before we go to the city administrator and you'll know why in a second um so uh my report is about our city administrator and our process to find a new one um as all of you know Michael Rogers um left the city sometime uh end of the summer uh we've had a temporary uh City administrator uh Tom tuci who is uh helping us out his last day through contract was on Friday so uh we wish Tom well he it was really great that he was here um he really did help us as we kind of uh moved towards this process of finding a new one uh we are deep in the works on on finding a new city administrator uh we put out um uh we advertised for the position we U received um I think it was over a dozen uh applicants for the position we've winnowed that down to a handful that we are uh in the process of setting up uh for interviews the goal of that proc process is to then uh get that down to two which we hope to vet and put out an a job offer for a new city administrator sometime in the beginning of December for start date uh the beginning of January it's aggressive schedule we think we can stick to it um and we're really uh looking forward to filling that role which leaves me to what we're doing now um uh in the intrum as you'll see it's going to be a resolution that we're going to vote on uh but but I'll speak a little out of turn on it um we have asked three of our uh department heads to step up and to take um the role of uh inim City administer till we uh find this uh so we're we're super super happy that uh Chief Evers has volunteered um our Madame clerk Rosemary lies and our CFO uh Tammy Baldwin so th this is awesome they have full-time jobs they are great at what they do but we've asked them to do a little bit more for the city of summit and and they've agreed to do that so you can see that Tammy is sitting in the seat now um as our acting ba they're going to rotate they've split up their responsibilities and we expect a very seamless uh transition between Mr Tucci and whoever our new uh ba will be hopefully in January so that is my report um now our city administrator report thank you very much council president couple of announcements um there's some City scheduled changes and closures due to Thanksgiving the city offices will be closed on Thursday November 28th and Friday November 29th the 28th 29th and 30th are parking holidays in Summit with no fees required for on street parking or parking in Municipal lots and garages so come on and shop and Summit um we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving to all the summit residents and your families there is also a modified recycling collection scheduled next week recycling on Monday the 25th Tuesday the 26th and Wednesday the 27th is unaffected that will continue as planned there is no recycling collection on Thanksgiving so that Thursday collection will be pushed to Friday the 29th and the Friday collection will be pushed to Saturday the 30th um Regular garbage is still collected on holidays in Summit and the transfer station will also be closed on Thanksgiving lastly the last two Summit free market events of 2024 will be held on Friday November 22nd from 12: to 2: p.m. and on Saturday December 14th from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the transfer station please note that there is no weekday event in December donation guidelines and more information is available on the city website at cityofsummit.org freemarket and that concludes my report thank you very much all right uh I think we do have a couple of maril proclamations am I correct you are all right thank you first is bar whereas the summit luminary fund a nonprofit organization that raises money for local charities in Summit is honoring one of its members Barbara romano and whereas the fund was started in 1985 by Barbara Romano with just a few streets and has grown into a CommunityWide effort and whereas one of the most beautiful moments in the community each year is driving through Summit on the evening of December 24th to see the streets of glow with The Luminaries this glorious site and the spirit of the community that it represents makes Summit New Jersey a special place in which to live the funds raised by selling The Luminaries brighten the lives of many in need throughout the year and whereas the summit luminary event is made possible through the dedication of Barbara Romano who served as president of the summit luminary fund until she retired in December of 2023 and whereas the summit luminary fund raised over $130,000 for local organizations in 2023 with 100% of the donations going to the chosen Charities these Charities include the area baby center Summit school supply Drive Grace Sage Elder Care ship Summit senior connection Bri connections rather Bridges welcome neighbors Christ child Society leet program Family Promise of Union County Summit volunteer first aid Squad Summit warm Hearts Santa Claus shop and Valerie fund children center at Overlook hospital now therefore I Elizabeth Fagan mayor of the city of summit Do hereby Proclaim November 18th 2024 as Barbara Romano Appreciation Day in the city of summit and ask that all citizens join me in expressing our thanks to Barbara Romano for 40 years of dedicated service to the city of summit through the summit luminary fund and wishing her a healthy and happy retirement in witness whereof I have here unto set my hand and caused the Seal of the city of summit to be affixed this 18th day of November in the year 2024 thank you thank you so much I'm deeply honored to receive this recognition from in the city of Summer what started out as a confirmation project by eileene moror on Prospect Hill has turned into a Citywide event all this could not have happened without the help of over 180 captains covering over 175 streets I've been very fortunate to have had a wonderful team of volunteers especially the six area leaders they undertook the task of opening up their garages for the captains to assemble all of the luminary orders it's quite a mess to do however the success of the summit luminary fund could not have been accomplished without the support of my late husband dig my daughter Gina Pam where are you Pam there she is and import more importantly Francy Cho Francy there you are Francy Cho who has gracious graciously and successfully taken over my role and of course we could not have built it to where it is today aming to $1,600,000 distributed over a course of my tenure without the whole Community embracing this tradition thank you so much it's things like this that make Summit so special so thank you right so all right the next Proclamation is uh for the Junior League of summit so bring my Representatives up give them a second all right whereas the junior Le League of summit is celebrating its 95th Anniversary as a women's volunteer organization dedicated to serving the communities of Berkeley Heights chadam New Providence and Summit and whereas the Junior League of summit is comprised of over 250 women who have the common mission of advancing women's leadership for Meaningful Community impact through volunteer action collaboration and training and whereas the Junior League of summit has made significant contri contributions to local communities since 1929 and has returned more than $3 million to these communities in the form of Grants projects programs and scholarships and whereas the Junior League of summit has contributed more than 1 million hours of community service and whereas the Junior League of summit has been a driving force in nonprofit leadership for over nine decades training over 2,000 women to be leaders in their communities supporting over 200 organizations and creating 12 initiatives that have grown into impactful programs including the summit speech School Summit first aid Squad and Grace and whereas the junior Le League of summit has addressed critical Community needs by establishing transformative services such as the first safe houses in Union County for victims of domestic violence Summit Child Care Center Summit senior bus and the maybe playground leaving a legacy of innovation and meaningful impact and whereas perhaps the greatest achievement has been the Junior League of summit Thrift Shop which is the oldest retail establishment in Summit and celebrating its 95th Anniversary this year it is also the primary fundraiser for the Junior League of summit and since it's in has provided the resources for Grants programs projects and scholarships that benefit Summit and the surrounding communities now therefore I Elizabeth Fagan mayor of the city of summit Do hereby Proclaim November 18th 2024 as Junior League of summit 95th Anniversary day in the city of summit and ask that all citizens join me in congratulating the Junior League of summit on the 95th Anniversary and thanking the Junior League of summit for its generosity and continued Community involvement throughout the years in witness whereof I have here on two set my hand and cause the Seal of the city of summit to be affixed this 18th day of November in the year 2024 congratulations thank you mayor haagan and thank you city council and all of you for being a part of the junior League's Legacy it is officially as of today our 95th Anniversary so the fact that we get to have this special moment here on the day of our founding is particularly momentous so thank you all for your continued partnership with the Junior League very nice thank you thank you ladies and uh that just proves that Summit runs on volunteers that's all I want to say all right that was fantastic um all right we're moving right along uh we have our Summit historical minute councilman palowski yes uh thank you um and I'm sorry for the delay I did uh I did say this would be happening about quarter of um but tonight we welcome a senior from Summit High School Juliet ho who will present our historical minute tonight Juliet has acquitted herself well in her years at Summit as a fine student and a big part of our state championship swim teams uh Juliet has a keen interest in history taking numerous electives and AP offerings during her time and she's going to present on I believe the uh the maybe playground maybe playground in um the uh Summit uh youth Olympics hi my name is Juliet hoe um and today I'm going to be about the history of maybe um playground and the playground Olympics so as many may know maybe recently received a grant to renovate the playground to make it more accessible but as we look forward to this new chapter let's also take a step back to appreciate its significance to the Summers of the children in the 1960s back then some of playgrounds weren't just fun spaces to play they were a the heart of a Beloved Community tradition the annual playground Olympics the part that stood out the most about this epic tournament was a w uniquely wide array of challenges and contests from tether bar games to paint splattering contests to baby picture competitions kids of all ages eagerly participated bringing together participants from elementary school to high school competition kicked off with the grand torch lighting ceremony at City Hall where teams from Memorial Lincoln Wilson maybe and more paraded with banners they had designed themselves in 1964 May's team proudly took home the first place trophy one of May's Stars included Willie Wilson who scored 12 points in a basketball game one against Wilson another standout was Eileen mcabe from Lincoln who entered her dolls into the doll contest test and won for having the most lifelike doll by July 1968 the event had expanded featuring Four Square competitions pick up six contests and softball games contributing to the endless selection of activities for kids to participate in some kids were even sent to compete at the state level in the New Jersey playground Olympics today the maybe playground project has raised half the amount of funds needed to reach its goal let's reignite the joy of maybe's pass and create a new era of playground fund for the generations to come thank you awesome thank you for your wait to see the new maybe playground all fixed up relive those memories I'd love to have a copy for theb oh um do you have a copy you can uh hand to the clerk please pop it on our website thank you thank you you so much all right um we're now at the presentation stage of our meeting and I'm really excited uh tonight we have a uh a a group of summit residents who are very passionate about uh this program and it's called wait until 8 8th um I'm really excited to hear this and to be involved in some small way uh with moving this thing forward just as a background um I teach AP government is one of my besides what I'm not up here and the I had a presentation given to to me by a bunch of my students and it was on the dangers of smartphones and the addictiveness of them and what it is doing to the Youth of America I on an intellectual level I kind of knew this was happening I've read some things or what have you but these kids hit me over the head with what is is happening and how destructive this is uh to our young children and we sit here and it's happening in front of our eyes and I made this decision like I'm going to try and do something about this because this is crazy so I reached out to our mayor and said you know I'd like to be involved in this and she said whoa now there are people in town who are thinking the exact same way you are uh so I was super super excited to we had a nice meeting with him we've we've been strategizing on how to move this forward and one of the first things we thought is that they could bring the attention of this to the public because it it is an incredibly serious issue um it's affecting those we love most which is our children um so I'm really really excited to see the presentation jod Hiller is is uh going to lead the group but you guys can all introduce yourselves and we've got a a presentation that we're going to show a a video clip and then they're going to um take it from there till what Mark are we doing 210 210 220 sorry 220 220 did you want to introduce yourselves first sure thank you I'm Jody Hiller for peero Road I'm Tracy Kleinman I live at 36 Blackburn Place Samantha Mor arti 80 Colt Road okay do you need to set this up or we just play this is a day I've been looking forward to for 2 and A2 years it's become a global ritual the new iPhone hits the stores and the lines form around the block smartphone junkies anxious to be among the first to buy the new iPhone would be buyers have been waiting in line for days just want to let you know finally officially anone guys I'm so excited I just got my new phone this is the iPhone 6 I can't believe my motivation and my spirit is really not well my mind is not well you have to make FES when you take selfie wait one more now better angle every girl in the picture Lo into her phone silcon Valley is engineering your phone apps and social media to get you hooked Google says this is no accident indeed it is by design a handful of employee says this is no accident indeed it is by design a handful of people at a handful of technology companies shaped how a billion people think and feel every day with the choice they made about these screams it's exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with because you're exploiting vulnerability in in human psychology it's clearly working today wherever we go we're inevitably surrounded by fellow citizens staring into their phones as we usually are too we've all been there we've seen the SC the games the videos the texting all of it and simply put a lot of children struggled even put their devices down depression anxiety and suicide among young people have risen dramatically in the last decade worse mental health increased behavior problems decreased academic performance and poor sleep now a new study shows it's getting worse the company's researchers found that Instagram is harmful for a sizable percentage of them most notably teenage girls smartphones invade nearly every aspect of Our Lives being decreased confidence increase anxiety deection the hard trouble sleeping this thing is all that screen time impacts the physical structure of your kids' brains as well as their emotional development and mental health I'm sorry the uh the video wasn't as clear um we are going to post that video on our website so you can watch it in totality it's it's about 15 minutes long but I really do recommend if you're interested in this make sure you you watch that so I'm sorry Jody go ahead no problem again I'm Jody Hiller I have an internet-based smartphone my kids will get one eventually but what we're seeing about smartphones and what their ties to social media can do to our children's mental health and development makes us question at what age is too young to sacrifice your childhood to a smartphone myself in a group with four other women in Summit Tracy kimman Samantha morti Amy canis and Jackie braver we're seeing alarming data we felt we could not ignore is there a way to get that just a little bit bigger you zoom in okay J you can tilt the mic to you yes it starts with the release of iPhone 4 the front-facing camera and Instagram in 2010 and by 2015 it was becoming normal for 12-year-old girls to spend hours each day taking selfies editing selfies and posting them for friends enemies and strangers to comment on the hours girls spent each day on Instagram were taken from sleep exercise and time with friends and family prior to 2010 depression numbers were stable and since 2010 an additional 18% of girls suffered from depression in 2021 a 150% increase in both genders a rate that had more than doubled even before covid and the same is for younger teens hospitalized for self harm by 2020 the rate for girls has nearly tripled with a 134% increase in suicide same time period for girls ages 10 to 14 not to mention other areas of concern attention and concentration in the classroom lack of sleep academic performance declining social skills and in-person interactions declining and another real problem cyber bullying in 2023 US Surgeon General Dr VC M Murthy says that there is a growing evidence that social media use is associated with harm to Young people's mental health Summit is this idyllic perfect town we moved here because the schools are fantastic the vicinity to culture in New York City is at our fingertips and what downtown community events have to offer is unmatched but Summit is not immune to this epidemic it's right here in our hometown that we love and while our group of kids are still young ranging from 2 to 10 years old we are seeing many families culminate these precious years of childhood with a fifth grade graduation present a smartphone we are not mental health professionals but parenting in a town capable of setting the pace for other towns we want to get ahead of the problem and protect our kids from becoming a statistic so we asked ourselves how do we get ahead of this problem and we had lunch and we had coffee and we had lunch and coffee again and we talked about it and talked about it and we said can we actually change the status quo and keep social media distractions and dangerous content out of the picture until our kids are older what's going to happen at that fifth grade graduation are we going to have to get them a phone because everybody else is we did not want to see how things would play out we felt an urgency and we wanted action we learned about a national organization called wait until 8th it immediately resonated with us their purpose is to empower parents to act together and delay internet-based smartphones until the end of 8th grade by signing a pledge it's about this notion of collective action bringing like-minded parents together to delay so no one feels alone and no one feels as though their kid is marginalized because they're not a part of the majority across the country wait until 8th has 82,000 pledges and wait until eth has been featured on The Today Show Good Morning America NBC national news NPR CNN Headline News just to name a few it was a no-brainer that this was the organization we wanted to align with here in Summit so we took a leap of faith we started a Grassroots movement the five of us here in Summit last spring to empower parents to sign the wait until 8th pledge the reactions were amazing parents were relieved they said few thank you so much for doing this we didn't know what to do and now we want to jump on board they're passionate just like we were and finally we felt like we were bringing the problem to the surface and we were doing something about it we currently have 380 active pledges with the following breakout across the elementary schools the momentum that we built in such a short amount of time garnered recognition within the national wait until eth organization so much so that the New York Times reached out to include Sumit in their story covering the movement we held an event over the summer with the founder of the organization and a licensed psychotherapist with over a 100 Summit attendees but as you can see our efforts are clearly concentrated as five Franklin moms we are ch challenged when it comes to extending beyond our personal networks to reach the broader sum Summit Community at large so where do we go from here it's our hope that by beginning a dialogue with all of you tonight we can foster support beyond the reaches of Franklin during discussions that we've had so far with mayor Fagan and council president Mike McAn we've brainstormed community events such as screen such as screen-free Pizza nights at the local downtown pizzerias perhaps there's an outdoor creative session where kids chalk the sidewalks with illustrations of what they enjoy doing beyond their screens we'd love to see more kids outside biking perhaps the schools form bike clubs or walking groups for Summit youth to travel to and from school together fostering not only time away from screens but Independence and confidence as parents we are lined yet there's 's only so much we can do as parents we need partnership from our Summit Leaders with the down the summit downtown the council the Board of Education all setting the tone and getting behind the importance of this we believe we can make a huge impact on the lives of the summit youth together that's what we have we'd love to hear any of your thoughts or answer any questions if there's time for that members of council you have any question questions comments councilman Boer uh thank you for that um I know some of us up here have uh young daughters uh councilman Smallwood uh Council woman Hamlet and myself I have a sixth grader and uh this really hits home you know it it really does and thank you for uh presenting this uh because I think parents need um that support and have a place to go um no one is immune from this even myself uh I think there's a place for phones but I got to tell you I I hate them cell phones um you know social media with the children with the kids back and forth all day you know it's um sometimes it's heartbreaking right and and I really really do appreciate this I think it's timely and I will will be reaching out definitely thank you thank you so much councilman Smallwood yes uh thank you all very much for your your presentation um unfortunately my daughter's I'm assuming the wait until eth is eth grade the end grade end of eighth grade is it too late to grab my daughter's phone she's an she's in eighth grade now um I may need some support behind that but uh I I think this is a a great program and as I was listening I was immediately thinking of the Department of Community programs uh you know having the events that you were talking about you know uh Pizza downtown without the screen something like that um I I think we could definitely partner with our Department of Community programs and come up with some events uh that absolutely no phones and it would love to sit down with you and and talk about that with you further so thank you very much for your presentation thank you no I would just like to say thank you as well thank you council president I have a little my my older ones aren't um as I would say addicted to their phones as my younger one is um I think for the first two I didn't really let them have them um until they were older and the younger one we let have uh a lot sooner and I I can see the difference already he goes from and I try to limit it um but he'll go from his VR goggles to his phone and and you can see physically he gets um anxious and and hopefully he's not watching right now or he'll really be angry at me they typically don't but I just want to say I think this is something that I can certainly support and uh pass along to all of our neighbors and we just thank you for all your work thank you councilman palowski yeah um you know the thing that I liked about uh or that I found Most Fascinating about the report were the statistics about what it does to our brains right and um I think some parents might say this is a great idea you know my kids are pain in the neck with their phones and everything else but we also need to look out for their their well-being and I know it's done something to my brain because I get Phantom buzzes in my pocket when my phone's not even in it so um thank you for the work that you're doing with us thank you any other comments May um I just want to say this group of women is is really incredible they um they came in last spring and I was sort of new around here and so I wasn't quite prepared to bite off as much as I think we can do as a community um so I want to thank you all for first of all get getting this going and second of all for being here tonight really really appreciate bringing um much needed attention to something that we you know it's like if there's something we as a community could do to decrease the number of kids that are struggling with depression and anxiety It's Kind it's a no-brainer and we've talked about this and so I'm really really proud to have you here and have you as part of our community so um and I just want to thank you and I would hope that people that are watching um people that are tuning in later um will reach out to you guys and if if anybody needs to reach out we know where to get you so please reach out to either um council president or myself um and we can certainly connect you um and it's it's a really it's really remarkable what you've already done and I look forward to seeing the progress so thank you thank you yeah I'll just wrap up that's amazing how many people you've signed up I think even since we talked several weeks ago you guys have had incredible momentum so congratulations on that but I I do think it's super super important I mean I tell my students it's not your fault you know social media companies literally invest billions and billions of dollars to get that little dopamine hit in our brain going and it addicts us my wife yells at me all the time I go into these death spirals on my phone and and we're adults impressionable malleable children have no chance it's literally like the tiniest little David against the biggest Goliath um but at the same time I think you know thinking about how to counter this you know bands and stuff that comes down from above people just will find ways to get around it but if we can like Summit is a community that cares Summit is a community that wants to know things they they do their homework and if there's any demographic that can really understand just how much this is affecting our youth you guys put the statistics up they're scary really scary I see it every day in the classroom um it our community can do this and if we if if we can get to a critical mass where the cool kid is the one without the phone and that's the kid you're going to hang around with then we win we win but it takes all of us to kind of get us over that line to make that happen and and I'm I'm super excited because if we can do this here you guys have already gotten awesome press from The New York Times other towns will begin to emulate this type of thing and that's where you need a Grassroots movement to really begin to change behaviors and change habits and I'm so excited that you guys are doing this and I know a lot of us up here Will be committed to helping but we can coordinate with the with the Board of Ed uh Community programs I want to reach out to Summit downtown to talk about how they can uh promote you know not phone usage as well there's so many things are real estate brokers imagine this if we get our real if if we can get this going in our town think about how attractive it will be to move to our community where you can have a community that your children are safe from this it's good for home values um as well um so like these are these are really lofty goals but I I think they're really achievable particularly in a community like like our so I'm super super excited to work with you guys thank you for all your effort um and and we will be in touch thank you all right uh we have no ordinances so we're going right to resolutions today um so uh first resolution uh from Finance uh councilman mener thank you council president this is number 11608 and this resolution authorizes the cancellation of open balances of completed projects and unexpended balances from capital projects this is a housekeeping item usually done in August that will result in the remaining fund balances being returned to the capital Improvement fund or the capital Surplus I move to adopt this resolution and I second any comments from the public uh comments from Council I just have one yes please um council president or through you council president to the CFO is there a running list of all of the capital projects that I think we went over them maybe last year that this isn't this isn't all of the capital projects that haven't been exhausted correct or is there is this it this no through you council president um this is not the entire list some of them are still open because there's ongoing work or work that's going to be charged there but this was everything that we could clean up right now that we know is complete that we know that we won't be using the funds anymore so this returns to Capital Surplus that's great thank you for your work on thaty any other comments or questions all right uh all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right moving right along to uh administrative policies and Community Services councilman bartan yes thank you council president this is resolution number 11610 uh to appoint the administrator transition executive committee uh per our discussion and Clos session and your description at the beginning of the meeting uh this create establishes the triumvirate of Tammy Baldwin Eric Evers and rosemary Liz who will act uh to uh serve as the interim uh transition executive committee until a new city administrator has been named I move to adopt this resolution I hear a second second comments from the public comments from Council all in favor I opposed motion carries all right law and Labor uh number one councilman palowski thank you this is resolution ID number 11625 to approve um 2025 council meeting schedule every year the council uh must set its meeting schedule for the upcoming year we generally meet the first and third Tuesdays of each month but there are exceptions I think nine in 2025 um so attached to the resolution is the schedule uh listed by date I move to adopt this resolution second comments from the public comments from Council all in favor I opposed motion carries law on labor number two councilman palowski thank you this is resolution ID number 11631 to declare a vacancy uh for the position of administrative assistant in the city clerk's office pror closed session discussion I move to adopt this ordinance second comments from the public comments from councel uh all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right Community programs and Parking Services um on the ride chair we're pulling that uh to for discussion at a later meeting and that is going to lead us to capital projects and Community Services number one councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president this is resolution 11624 which is authorizing the negotiated contract for the paddle tennis court Improvement project uh in the amount of $29 uh whereas bids were received for the paddle tennis court Improvement project on two occasions June 4th and July 16th whereas all bids were rejected on June 4th and they were also no bids were received on July 16th common Council authorized negotiations for this project on July 30th and the director of community services advises that Riley Green Mountain platform tennis courts has provided a proposal dated September 6th to complete complete the project for a cost of $174,999 comments from Council I do have a comment yes councilman Varan thank you council president I've thought about this uh has been going on for a while um spoken to a lot of people in the community uh given a lot of thought I just can't uh support this uh kind of pet project at this moment uh first of all it's a very small percentage of the summit population that plays paddle and this is essentially overflow for private club s um second is price is almost double now what was originally budgeted uh we have not attempted to raise funds from the community and I third just don't think we should be spending the money on this when we've got playgrounds that are falling apart so for that reason I'm not going to support it this evening now uh other comments yes councilman Smallwood uh again this project has been going on since 2023 maybe if it had been approved we wouldn't have had to worry about the price going up um you know this is one of the fastest growing Sports not everybody can afford to join a private club that has paddle uh this is for our residents that are unable to use this paddle court for the past it's it's unplayable in fact it's so unplayable that we actually this past summer had to shut it down because it's it's a liability so you know this is something that we have been pushing for over a year and a half and just because the price has gone up is not a reason not to approve this uh if we should have approved it and had it done in 2023 when it was first brought to council and approved so for something that the base of the the paddle courts is fine it's the screening and the the actual paddle court itself that needs to be replaced uh it's actually chicken wire that's currently on there now uh it's I can't I don't even know it had to have been built in the 50s so it's something that we've provided to all of our citizens not everybody plays paddle but we do have a lot of citizens who do and we can also potentially make it a partial pickle ball at some point which is also one of the fastest growing Sports in our country so this is a benefit to a lot of people that have been asking me when are we finally going to get this done when can we actually play on this battle court so I will be in favor of this other comments councilman palowski I just Echo um some of councilman Smallwood's thoughts and I don't see how I don't see how this is a pet project when it's essentially fixing or replacing something that's been there for decades since before you were born Greg um so uh I'm going to be voting uh in favor of it and um does anybody know when those when the last time is that we put those I can okay um it's got my sport councilwoman Hamlet so I'm looking at a memo dated July 7th 2023 so Rosie who was council president then that was was that you Greg that was that was you so I'm looking at a memo it says a hereby authorized to advertise for competitive bids for services related to the Reconstruction of the Wilson Park platform tennis structures the Wilson platform tennis structure located at Wilson Park is a two-court raised wooden structure used by residents for platform paddle tennis the two courts are over 50 years old and despite regular maintenance over the years have deteriorated structurally to the current state raising safety concerns for Park users the structur is comp comprised of aluminum decking wooden stairs and superstructure chicken wire fencing and light fixtures controlled by timers the structure is not currently compliant for Ada accessibility the proposed project includes the Reconstruction of the entire superstructure with an all aluminum welded superstructure New Wooden snowboards new 16 gauge galvanized screening goes on and on and on funding for this project totals $189,600 and is available from the following accounts and grants capital budget 11 110 which you see on here 100008 310 which I don't think is on here I'm not looking too closely um actually Union County trust Grant of $50,000 and with matching funds which I don't even think are in here from the city's account and then then we also went and secured a grant of $20,000 from the American platform tennis Association which was spearheaded uh by Regina feni and Carrie Del Monaco who are here in town so it actually is a little less money than I think we started by about that 15 grand and we couldn't find anybody to draw platform tennis plans so Aaron where do we have to go to to draw get these plans drawn up through you council president The Firm was I'm kind of drawing up right here but it was it took us a while to find one we had to scour the internet and reach out to people who had paddle paddle courts built uh in other municipalities so um I forgot to fir so so all these other municipalities Stone Harbor Seager all these other all a lot of other municipalities so that residents who aren't members of country clubs can enjoy the sport of paddle and this was under not only your leadership Andy and I started in community programs together when I first started Council we were talking about this so to change your mind on a capital project Capital project that we just voted for again I think that we' voted on this eight times so I will be supporting this resolution it's shocking that you don't council president other com I do want to councilman small I do want to mention that we do have $72,000 of grant money in total other comments through you council president yes please councilman Minar um so I I do have a problem with the fact that so we we did we voted to allow this to be dealt with through um um negotiating a contract and it was because we couldn't find the firm to draw the plans that first bid that came in was closer to what we had hoped for and that that and I guess I would be interested in knowing if we pursued that that group to fix their bid um or if it was a uh or if it was impossible for them to do so I don't know if that's a question for Tammy or for counc I can answer it I would answer that um I do have additional one additional half comment I just I was hoping to find out if somebody knew that answer I don't know I I do I know it okay through councilwoman first bid was first bid was Riley green but they didn't have the public work certification correct director shager that is correct which is a fatal flaw so the bids were to the bids of fatal flaw original bid amount director Sher can you I am calling that up now I think we actually got it down by 25 Grand my memory is a little foggy but what was the date of the first B bid I know it's in the memo it's July but this we budget the amount on July 7th 23 was before we got any bids uh director shreer it was it's June 4th 2024 and then July 16th 2024 okay and June 4th the bid price was $1 198,199 come in or the bids fail in this case um tells me that there's not a lot of firms building these and I think in this case that negotiation didn't actually do anything to benefit the city guess it came down from the original thing but I think the negotiation um didn't serve us as well as actually getting bids from other companies so uh I'm also in not in support of this one other comments council president yes councilman V you know we talk about I don't think it's eight votes right we talk about the number of bites at an apple when we're talking about the capital budget right so you've got the capital budget Workshop one year then you go through the budget process which involves a vote then then you authorize a uh bid process to begin and then you actually vote to spend the money right and a whole lot has happened between when we decided we were going to put it in the capital budget and see what we can do until now and I'm saying I have heard from members of the community and I've made my position clear here the priorities have shifted and I would rather spend the money on playgrounds so that's where I am thank you other comments from Council I mean the only thing I'll say council president if I may we spent director oosy myself director shreer you were there correct we were underneath the chassis of the paddle tennis courts Greg you weren't able to make that meeting but this is this is a project that has been planned for in the capital budget grants have been received and again because of politics you're not going to vote for this which is again disappointing no that's see that's just that's an unnecessary accusation right you can speak please thank you thank you council president look I don't understand why we have to say when we disagree with each other we then start down the path of accusations right I've explained fairly clearly I think in a respectful way why I am voting against this resolution and and I don't you know it disagreement does not mean division we are we actually really should we talked about it all the time last year how everybody was Voting in lock step and we're not talking about anything right like we're having a reasonable policy discussion up here and I think that's a good thing for the community thank you Council my last comment councilman small listen play playgrounds are a priority of mine as well however we have an older population that need health and benefits and Welfare as well uh this is an exercise program that it allows without doing some in-depth research but I am a paddle player and anyone over most of the people that I play with are over 35 so you know it is a health and benefit for our older residents as well that unfortunately can't use our playgrounds councilman palowski don't forget um you know those teenage young teenage kids who aren't going to have their phones anymore I know when I was a kid I would go to I would I played paddle at Wilson When I was a kid and you know I didn't have a cell phone but um how they going to look up the rules how they going to look up the rules it's make them up as they go it's um any other comments all right I'm going to have the last word here is um so on this uh you know I look at this thing we're not building this from scratch it exists it's a it's a Community Asset it's something that enhances our community we have it the alternate alternative is to just let it rot and fall apart where we're going to have to spend money someday either eventually fixing it up where it's going to cost a lot more money we're going to have to tear it down which would be very sad and that's going to cost money and then you have to repair the grounds and do all that kind of stuff um might not be that much but we have grant money for this this has been thought through I completely agree that this is a um it's an activity that does uh uh Service uh other people other than kids I play paddle I have gray hair I can do it it I like it to do it it's one of the few things I can do that I can get outside um and and it also you know this is a public space there are a lot of people who can't afford to play at a club and this is a an alternative venue for them um I liken this too like if we were not to do this we we've just gone through an entire uh you know crazy process with our Fieldhouse down in tatlock field where people looked at it and every year we kick the can down the road saying let's we'll do it later we'll do it later we'll do it later and we had a health emergency at the last minute around that um um you know this is a paddle tennis court it's you know there's no mold issues but but you get my point we can't keep kicking stuff down the the road because we don't want to just suck it up and do something that's right for our community so again it it exists it needs repair IT services a segment of our community that uh that doesn't have other op that has different types of options this fits perfectly with that and and we have a lot of grant money that defas the cost so I I am going to support this as well um all right all in favor I opposed n nay all right motion carries all right going on to capital projects and Community Services number two councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president this is resolution 11614 authorizing the execution of the temporary access agreement with Morris Habitat for Humanity on Ashwood Court whereas the City Des desires to repair retaining wall separating the property from the contiguous properties on Ashwood Court and the city's right of way and whereas in order to complete the work the city requires access to the property to restore any disturbances to the soil and if necessary to remove and reinstall the fence on the property whereas the owner has a aged to Grant the city access to the property subject to the terms and conditions that are set forth in this access agreement attached I would like to move this resolution I have a second second comments from the public comments from counil all in favor I I opposed motion carries uh capital projects and Community Services number three councilwoman Hamlet uh yes council president thank you thank you this is ID one can I bundle these or no uh you may okay uh these are IDs 11 1630 and 11 1621 declaring vacancy and authorizing as discussed in closed session declaring a vacancy and authorizing promotion to fill a vacancy in the Department of Community Services in the engineering division uh for assistant engineer and declaring a vacancy in the Department of Community Services engineering division part-time senior engineering Aid I would like to move these two resolutions and can talk about them further after we get started second comments from the public comments from Council all right uh all in favor I I opposed all right number three and four pass that's great all right um we're on to the consent agenda do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved second comments from the public comments from Council all in favor I opposed right consent agenda passes all right that is it for our official business uh City officials uh bid you a farewell evening um before they leave can ask uh director Shader a couple of questions is that so I know there there's some residents here that probably want some updates and if he leaves then okay uh do you mind Mr shreer you okay with that will will it be limited to 3 minutes yes okay well it is it is me I don't know maybe six I don't know um no this should be relatively quickly uh can you provide an and I know that you provided an email I just want to some clarification can you provide an update on the sidewalk um and that is the one on uh I believe it's Ash Ashlin and pouth so through you council president the you know the first step we've we've looked at it I mean INF it looks like it's something that could work uh so we did authorize a survey to take place which uh the surveying company has said it should take place the first week of December and then assume we'll get the results back by the end of the year and we could probably produce a concept um you know early first quarter 2025 thank you for that update uh next one is um environmental study for the park line um is that something that we can uh publish relatively soon I know that there are residents waiting to take a look at that yes absolutely we just have to dig through the files to find it you know specifically because the files are massive some are with the park line committee some are with us uh we just haven't had a moment to dig it out and we'll we'll post it to the park line uh the project page on our website so great thank you director shrigger and uh last but not least uh light on Dennis Place uh I know that there was some uh some issues with uh jcpnl I think getting out to the light service is that is that something new because I I I know they would move relatively quickly or is that the lighting on Dennis place that has some issues so in regards to if if we're talking about you know street lights there JCP and and ACP andl owned but the city essentially you know rents them um and they are out is that just to yeah that so what they're not that quick of of lately enough for the last few years we just sent them an email today about a few locations as well as a reminder so uh there's there's two things we do is one we track them but we also uh report them and residents can report them either themselves through the jcpnl uh you know First Energy login page or if they submitt it to us through uh C click fixer even as an email we put it in or even the police department can as well so any ones we have have been put in but I will just share it is they're not moving quickly of lately so we did send a reminder today okay yeah that was a c click fix and it was a while ago maybe a month ago um around uh Halloween and that that that it's a culde attack and when that light is out the kids can't see anything it is it is like pitch black so um I've been getting calls about that so if we can if there's anything that I could do let me know um and I I'd be happy to help so but thank you absolutely I think part of it is JCP and I between government liaison right now so it's kind of a fill in as the previous one so it's not helping things move along but we did just send a reminder um today so yeah and by the way thank you for uh um fixing the uh the line in the middle of Mars Avenue uh I appreciate that there were cars getting their members knocked off so I saw that on the on the one hand where there's no parking supposed to be they moved the line closer on that side and where the parking is that it had less space so when cars were coming down they were knocking off the mirrors so I saw the the county come in a couple of days ago and they moved the line back to the right side so I know that you were um you you were uh a major deal and getting that done I appreciate that right no no problem it was you know unfortunately for that situ it's a County Road it was a county project it was County plans those were all correct it was a contractor error so uh some people brought up the divot in the middle of the road it it'll wear out it doesn't look amazing right now but um that'll just kind of smooth out over over time so but but they did fix it and that was brought to our attention by some residents so we appreciate that thank you director thank you all right thank you Aaron all right uh at this stage we're going to open up um our meeting for public comment comments um as Madam clerk mentioned please keep your comments to 3 minutes so we can everyone gets a chance to talk thank you and when you come to the Lector state your name and your address how's your shot all right anyway Dennis mver 16 clear viw Drive um I know that you're having a meeting regarding lights at the high school um unfortunately because of what I do for a living I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to attend that meeting and I wanted to um just say a few words about that I know there's a three minute limit um about March of 2017 I was the president of the little league and mayor Fagan and I were in a meeting of all of the leaders of all the local uh youth sports teams and the discussion was the fields the discussion was um essentially making our Fields more Dynamic more usable for the various Sports because at that time we were fighting to make sure that uh the various Sports would have uh the opportunity to use those fields and at that time I was advocating quite strongly that baseball and softball needed uh use of all the fields including lacrosse um would God forbid but I was fighting quite hard to see that baseball and softball saw those fields I think um a step in the right direction is making our Fields more Dynamic I'm aware that the Middle School field there might be a plan in the pipeline to make that field more Dynamic our elementary school fields which are used for baseball and softball predominantly um need upgrades and I think a relief valve to all of that would be um enhancing and in in allowing more and more Sports to use more of the fields which unfortunately means putting lights on tatlock um I said before I live at 16 Clear View Drive uh some of you know where that's located I'm right on Memorial Field um I see soccer and all various Sports going on all the time and I'm familiar with all of the concerns that potentially neighbors would have to putting lights on a field um having said all that I would say I'm still in support of it and I'm in support of any effort that either Council the Board of Education would put towards enhancing all of our fields for the Youth uh I was the president of the summit youth baseball and softball league for four years I currently am a coach for them but I don't want to be disingenuous either some of you probably know I have a son in college playing football I have a son on the high school football team so I don't want to be disingenuous with anyone either but at in 2017 when I was was a meeting with mayor Fagan she wasn't the mayor at the time it was all about the dynamic um having our Fields become more Dynamic so more field so more of the sports organizations can use them and um kids are coming and kids are coming and they need to use the fields so any effort in that regard I think would be welcome at least by me and by the way I have an 11e daughter who also I'd like to not have her have a phone so I'm with that as well um thank you for your time I hope I can get to the December Lights meeting but I wanted to make sure I I put my thoughts on record so good night thank you anyone else for public comments all right we're going to uh close public comments uh we'll move along to council member comments and new business who'd like to go first I will councilman Smallwood thank you uh just to since he already mentioned it um there is a Department of Community programs meeting on December 4th um that we will present the studies from the traffic which were done during a during the high school graduation as well as a home football game so the experts will be there to present their studies as well as an environmental study which the expert from the environmental study who did that study will be there as well uh we will also have a comprehensive field study that Mr mckever had talked about that has been an issue essentially since 2017 so we will have that December 4th at 7:15 at the Middle School auditorium and for those of you who cannot make it we will have it will be recorded and then all of the studies um in the interest of time for the meeting itself we will be putting the studies on the Department of Community website uh hopefully by the end of this week uh certainly no later than the early ear ear the latest it would be would be early next week uh we have not received the studies yet so but considering the the amount of time with the presentations and potential questions uh we will be releasing the studies so that people can formulate their questions prior to the meeting uh again uh December 4th 7:15 p.m. at the uh Middle School auditorium thank you councilman Smallwood any other comments from Council councilman Boer yes um I've teamed up with Homeland Security uh and the board um of Education to present a protect to know uh program uh the homeland security and special agent will be coming in on January 27th uh we will promote it we'll get it out there to the pal um we'll get it out there to the PTA this is for parents only and it's about child exploitation um when we talk about uh social media um it's about having uh explicit materials on uh social media and other applications and how to get those things removed how to report that information to Homeland Security uh how to work with law enforcement uh to protect our children uh this is a program that has been administered throughout the state of New Jersey and it's actually going Nationwide uh and I think that parents teachers uh will um will be highly edified about what they have to offer uh if there is something that's out there that um your your your child is exposed to or information being shared back and forth it is good to know that you have somebody to call that can get that material off of social media or any platform uh so I will be uh promoting this for the next month hopefully we'll have a really good showing as we can see today from the presentations that we had uh about our cell phones um this is kind of in line with that so uh I'm really supportive and happy about this project thanks thank you other comments from Council no w we almost made nine o'clock um I'm gonna I'm gonna give one uh two uh two comments one um I know this was mentioned earlier I'm just going to reiterate it um we are going through the process of uh of filling all the amazing boards and commissions and uh what were the other term for it Claire committees yeah there's loads of different names for them but um I always think there are different reasons that make Summit special our downtown our schools but uh one thing that makes Summit over and above most other towns is the commitment from our volunteers they give they give they give and this is your opportunity to join that group so um please if you are interested in joining a board or a commission or a committee uh you know please send in your application you can find them on the city's website um the second thing I just would say uh is um you know uh there was some back and forth up here on on Council earlier uh I don't agree I as you saw I voted differently than councilman Varan on a resolution I kind of do agree with him we should be able to disagree in in a polite manner on that I have had a lot of uh meetings with people from the public who also wish for a uh a tone and a temperature in our town to reflect the ability to have disagreements and be civil about it and I'm really happy like we I've talked to uh mayor Fagan as well as councilman Varan around crafting some sort of State statement bipartisan statement to talk about Civility and what we what we are looking to do as Leaders of our community but also maybe to Model Behavior that people in our community can follow too if they so choose um so I'm excited to work with both of them about crafting some sort of statement I'm hoping we can get it out in a few weeks um and uh because I do obviously think it's super super important so I'm looking forward to doing that okay um there's no other questions do I have a motion to adjourn so moved second okay all in favor hi I opposed we are adjourned thank you everybody